Prosecutors found Trump guilty of violating New York election laws, proving 34 federal felonies
In Trump's guilty verdict, a new legal technique emerged to prove federal law in violation of New York state law, as prosecutors proved 'connection to the presidential election campaign' in falsifying business documents as a serious crime.
The New York prosecutor's indictment and trial of Trump was an intense six-week interrogation of 20 witnesses to prove Trump's 'record falsification' and the purpose of the election campaign was to cover up a sex scandal that was at risk of being eliminated from the 2016 presidential campaign. He persuaded the jury and succeeded.
The New York Times evaluated on the 30th that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg used a risky legal strategy and was justified.
After months of internal deliberation, prosecutor Bragg launched a vague claim that former President Trump "violated New York state election law," and this new, untested legal theory of applying state election law to federal election campaigns was met with "prosecution" from Trump's lawyers. It became the target of ridicule that the prosecution was weak at best.
The issue for proving guilt is not the personal falsification of business documents based on the claim that the former president's actions reached the level of a serious crime in the cover-up and forgery case involving Trump's fixer, but the concealment of 'former President Trump's second crime, a campaign violation'. This is proof of the fact that company records were falsified in order to do so.
Contrary to expectations, the New York prosecutors called many of Trump's associates during the witness examination to 'prove the falsification' and used this as evidence to 'prove the motive for distortion.'
Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass summarized this in his closing arguments.
In the prosecution's final statement, he told the jury, "I called many of Trump's former employees and associates who had no motive to fabricate their testimony, and their testimony to protect Trump had a motive to distort it in order to help former President Trump."
Prosecutor Bragg began his testimony on April 22 by calling David Pecker, former publisher of National Enquirer and friend of Trump, to the witness stand.
During witness questioning, Pecker testified for days in detail about Trump's plot to influence the outcome of the 2016 presidential election, a bigger picture that prosecutors were trying to convey, as if it had nothing to do with violating New York state law.
Prosecutors told jurors that at an infamous gathering at Trump Tower in 2015, Trump and his associates conspired to protect Trump's first presidential campaign.
Jurors heard compelling testimony from witnesses about the scandal that Pecker bought and buried to prevent disgrace to Trump's campaign.
Jurors heard about the Yellow Paper's election interference practices, which they said were common among supermarket shelf tabloids, and prosecutors heard from Pecker about the extraordinary nature of the conspiracy with Trump, which was designed to aid Trump's campaign and influence the election. The testimony was taken from behind.
From here, New York prosecutors systematically uncovered the core of the case.
The key to covering up the sex scandal was that Michael D. Cohen, Trump's then-handler, paid $130,000 in hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels and compensated Mr. Cohen for creating fake records. This is the plot.
Hope Hicks, Trump's former campaign spokeswoman, said in testimony that the Trump campaign was in a state of panic following the release of the "Access Hollywood" tape in which Trump was caught making vulgar remarks about women just before the 2016 presidential election, calling for "a litany of scandals." explained.
Daniels' former lawyer, Keith Davidson, described how Daniels took advantage of those concerns and negotiated with Cohen to obtain hush money for Daniels.
Jeffrey McConnie, a former manager of the Trump Organization and a longtime loyal Trump employee, testified about the compensation payment to Cohen.
Other former and current employees followed suit with their testimonies.
In their testimony, employees described in detail and at length the accounting details of how the checks were delivered to President Trump in the Oval Office and how Cohen repaid them.
Prosecutors corroborated weeks of testimony with documents, recordings, emails, social media posts, phone records and text messages.
Prosecutors specifically presented jurors with a handwritten note sent to Cohen by former Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Alan H. Weisselberg containing details of a repayment plan (what prosecutor Steinglass called a "smoking gun"). Watched it multiple times, and listened to Cohen's recorded conversations, it indirectly proved that Trump knew about the hush money deal.
Prosecutors read passages from former President Trump's book at trial, describing him to jurors as a "frugal micromanager who always questioned his bills, mistrusted his employees, and loved revenge."
This image, established by prosecutors midway through the trial, was never refuted, as former President Trump chose not to state his side of the story in his own defense.
When Mr. Daniels and Mr. Cohen were called to the witness stand, all the prosecutors had to do was fill in the gaps in the witness examination with their “Trump-friendly sensibilities” testimony.
In his testimony, Daniels vividly described what Trump was trying to hide from voters.
Daniels said in her testimony that there was an uncomfortable, consensual sexual encounter in a hotel room in Lake Tahoe, Nevada in 2006 and that there was an "imbalance" of power between her and Trump.
Prosecutors described Cohen, the fixer, as former President Trump's "ultimate insider" and "travel guide through physical evidence" through witness questioning.
Cohen explained that former President Trump instructed actor Daniels to repay the money (Coen recalled what former President Trump said in his testimony) and that they met in the Oval Office of the White House and former President Trump confirmed the compensation plan.
Prosecutors were in turn helped by Trump's defense team's decision to call Robert J. Costello, once an unofficial legal adviser to the fixer Cohen, to the stand.
Mr. Costello, one of two defense witnesses, appeared incoherent and incoherent on the stand and was called "derogatory" by the judge in front of the jury.
Through intense cross-examination, the prosecution proved that Costello's testimony was that Cohen, a key official, was "Trump's agent trying to prevent him from cooperating with law enforcement."
The prosecution's cross-examination effectively put an end to the prosecution's narrative of former President Trump's actions. Prosecutor Steinglass said in his closing argument, "The name of the game was cover-up," and "all roads inevitably lead to the person who benefited the most, the defendant, former President Donald Trump."
NYT said on this day, “Some legal experts predicted that this would be the downfall of District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg,” and “However, the jury found Prosecutor Bragg guilty of 34 felonies against former President Trump. “We quickly and decisively demonstrated the dangerous strategy used to do this.”
Prosecutor Bragg said at a press conference shortly after his guilty verdict: "I did my job. Our job is to follow the facts without fear or favor, and that's what we've done here."
The NYT evaluated, “The jury’s verdict of guilty on all 34 counts of felonies was a monumental victory that made history as the first prosecutor to indict, indict, and convict a former U.S. president.”
Former President Donald J. Trump was found guilty on all 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to the repayment of hush money paid to porn star Stormy Daniels to cover up a sex scandal before and after the 2016 presidential election.